Driven By Emotions: Riley's Story
by Kiki Anderson
Summary: Every wonder how we would see Riley think and act without her emotions shown? Riley has her own version to the story we're all so familiar with, and she's ready to share it with all of us.
1. Chapter 1

I guess I'm here to tell you all about my very emotional and… hectic move to San Francisco, right? I mean, why else would I be here? Well, here's my story…

Right from the very minute I was born, mom and dad told me that I was smiling. I had always been a happy girl, right from the start. They even told me once that they were concerned because I didn't cry as much as a normal infant would, but then they realized that every baby was different, and sometimes they only cry when they need something right then and there.

But when I did get upset about something-which was rarely-I would regain my happy attitude in a matter of minutes. No matter what I did and when I did it, I always had a smile on my face. Whether it was a fake one or a genuine one… well, that depends on what was going on.

So when mom and dad told me we were moving to San Francisco because of dad's new job, I was really excited. Mom always said that an adventure is an opportunity to discover the history and culture behind everything that's around you. And before I knew it, our house was packed up in boxes, and I was pulled out of school and my hockey team. Our stuff was put into a moving van, and then we were on the road.

It took us a LONG time to cross the country, but it would've taken us less time if we had gone straight through each state. But on the bright side, the long trip gave me time to think about what our house was going to look like, since mom and dad decided not to show me what it looked like… and made it like a surprise.

We passed a lot of cool things, and we even stopped at a few monuments to make memories-as mom called it-and stretch our legs after being in that cramped car for hours at a time, and it was even more cramped with some of our things being inside it.

There was this one place in Nebraska where was stopped for dinner, and I ordered some soup. But when my soup came, I dug my spoon in, and it just stood there, by itself! It was disgusting! I refused to eat it, it was just too gross. The most disgusting thing was that dad ate it! I swear, I almost puked!

On our last day of driving before we made it to the new house, dad decided to drive us all to a city in California called Cabazon, and there were these GIGANTIC dinosaurs! It was so amazing! Dad wanted us to take a picture in front of 'Mr. Rex,' so he turned off the car, and we got out to stand out in front of him. But as he was about to take the picture, the car started falling backwards… I think he forgot to put the car in park.

"Say cheese!" he said happily.

"Dad! Dad!" I said, trying to get his attention while I was looking at the car. Mom must've noticed too, because then she joined in.

"Honey!" She said.

"Now hold still." He said intently, still oblivious to the car.

"The car!" mom shouted, pointing in the direction of the car.

"Just look behind you!" I shouted, and he finally turned to see the car rolling backwards.

It was so funny when he tried to chase after it, shouting "Stop! No, no, no, no!"

I gasped when our car collided with the tail of 'Dinny the dinosaur,' but after that, mom and I couldn't stop laughing. The dinosaur looked hilarious with our car on its tail. Eventually, dad laughed along with us, and then attempted to get the car off its tail. He turned on the car, and tried driving forward. Surprisingly, it worked, mainly because I thought with all the stuff in the back of our car, the tail would've been lodged into all of it. But, I guess not.

Dad just wanted to leave then, so we hopped into the car, and we made it to San Francisco in the late afternoon. I remember driving through a tunnel, and my first view of San Francisco was the Golden Gate Bridge. It was really pretty, but I thought it was made of actual gold. That was a little bit of a disappointment, but as we drove through the crazy city, I looked around in awe, and my disappointment disappeared.

We drove farther from the traffic, and the area became a little more quaint, but still sort of busy. There was a little trolley and everything. I wondered if dad was just taking a shortcut, or if he was actually driving to our house. After a little bit of silence in the car, dad said, "Alright, just a few more blocks, we're almost to our new house!"

I could feel the excitement building. For the rest of the way, I thought about what my house would look like. I thought about one having a slide, another one being a treehouse, I even thought about our house being a gingerbread house or a castle with a dragon… which sounded kind of cool.

We drove down a few more roads, and some houses came into view. These houses looked really nice, and it made me wonder if our house was going to look that nice. Finally, dad stopped driving, and turned off the car in front of our house. I was so excited! I grabbed my backpack and my hockey stick before I jumped out of the car… so excited to see what our house looked like…

It looked like a dump.

The shudders were gray in some places, there was spray paint on the garage door, and basically it all looked dirty, faded, and gross.

'Maybe it looks nice on the inside.' I thought. I walked up the stairs to the front door to see that there was already mail in the mail slot. I opened the door and pushed it open with my hockey stick.

I looked around… it looked as disgusting inside as it did on the outside, but more dusty. There was dirt everywhere, cardboard boxes lying around, and even a bottle of all-purpose cleanser by the fire place. I walked into the house a little bit farther, and the smell hit my nose. It smelled like something died in there. I continued to look around for anything to take my mind off of how gross the house looked, and to my shock, I saw a DEAD MOUSE lying on the floor in the corner! It was absolutely repulsive!

I backed out of the living room over to the staircase. I just wanted to be away from that dead mouse. As I looked at the staircase, I remembered how dad told me through the entire way there how cool my new room was going to be. So I excitedly ran up the stairs to my room, but when I got there… I wish I stayed downstairs.

It was just as gross and disgusting as it was up there. There was even broken wires lying around on the floor. There was dust and dirt on the walls, but then I tried to picture all of my stuff in my room. I pictured my bed in the corner, with my nightstand next to it, and my desk and dresser on the other wall. Then I pictured all of my glow in the dark stars going up on the ceiling and the walls, and I became excited to decorate.

I ran back down the stairs to get my things out of the moving van, but then mom and dad walked in the front door, and dad was on the phone while mom was carrying a box into the living room. They were both talking to each other, and I listened to what they had to say.

"All right. Goodbye." Dad said into the phone as he hung up. "Well guess what? The moving van won't be here until Thursday."

"You're kidding." Mom replied.

"Mmm-hmm." Dad responded.

The moving van isn't even here yet? It left before we did, and it didn't stop in pretty much each state like we did either. Thursday is a long time for now. That's in 4 days! What are we going to do without furniture for 4 days?!

"You said it would be here yesterday!" Mom said.

"I know that's what I said. That's what they told me!" Dad retorted.

I could tell mom and dad were stressed. All of our belongings were in that van, and it was supposed to be here yesterday. Now we have to wait 4 days for it to get here. Maybe there was something we could do that could take our minds off all the stress. That's it!

"Did you even read the contract?" Mom shouted at dad.

I grabbed a piece of paper and I crumpled it up into a ball. Then I dropped it on the floor and began moving it around with my hockey stick.

"Andersen makes her move." I said, catching mom and dad's attention. "She's closing in!"

I entered the living room, and I got dad to play along. He grabbed the broom from by the windowsill and began blocking me. "Hey! Oh, no, you're not!"

"She's lining up for the shot!" I shouted in anticipation, kicking the paper ball underneath dad's legs. I ran around him before aiming for the fireplace.

"Watch out! Watch out!" Dad shouted.

"She shoots and she scores!" I cheered when the paper ball landed in the fireplace. "Yeah!"

I looked at mom. She had her arms crossed, but she was smiling. "Come on, grandma!" I teased.

"Ha! 'Grandma'?" Mom scoffed. She pulled the scrunchie off her wrist and put her hair up. Then she grabbed the pillow off the crate she was once carrying and began blocking me from the 'goal' with it. But then dad picked her up over his shoulder and she dropped the pillow.

"Hey!" She laughed. Then he picked me up. I giggled. "Put me down!" Mom shouted between her laughter.

Suddenly, dad's phone rang. We stopped laughing, and dad put us down before walking a few steps forward to answer the call. He apologized to us just before he answered the call.

"Hello? You're kidding. Alright stall for me. I'll be right there." Dad said into the phone. He hung up before turning to mom.

"The investor's supposed to show up on Thursday not today!" Dad sighed. "I gotta go."

"It's ok. We get it." Mom replied. Dad's gonna leave for work… already? We just got here!

"You're the best. Thanks, hon." Dad smiled at mom before giving her a kiss and turning to me before he walked out the door. "See you sweetie!"

I frowned, staring at the floor. Dad just left me and mom here. Alone. We're supposed to be together, but this whole move has changed that. I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually, but it's still hard.

I had the sudden urge to eat, and I remembered seeing a pizza place down the street just before we got here. I think mom and I could even walk to it.

"Hey, I saw a pizza place down the street. Maybe we could try that?" I suggested to mom.

She turned to me and smiled. "Pizza sounds delicious."

I smiled back before quickly running upstairs to get my jacket before we left. Mom locked the door behind us and we walked to the pizza place. We waited about 5 minutes in line before we got to the counter, and mom ordered us each a slice of pizza. She handed the cashier the card, and a minute later she handed us a late with two pieces of pizza. But it wasn't just any pizza. It was… wait for it.

Broccoli pizza! Gross!

I suddenly didn't fell hungry anymore, and frankly, neither did mom. She got her money back and we walked out of there. As we walked up the street mom decided to start conversation.

"What kind of a pizza place only serves one kind of pizza?" She asked. "Must be a San Francisco thing, huh?"

I grunted in response.

"Still, it's not as bad as that soup. At that diner in Nebraska." Mom stated.

"Oh, yeah." I chuckled. "The spoon stood up in the soup by itself! That was disgusting! Dad's got a steel stomach."

I felt mom wrap her arm around me, and I walked closer to her. "The drive out was pretty fun, huh? What was your favorite part?"

I had to think about this for a minute. We all had a lot of good times during the drive, but I finally concluded on the dinosaurs. "I liked that time with the dinosaur. That was pretty funny."

Mom laughed. Then I laughed too. But then I felt sad. Like, whenever I thought of that memory, it didn't feel happy anymore. Because of the dinosaur's tail, we had to spend a couple hundred dollars to get the window fixed. That could've been good money we used for food. I shook my head slightly, and I removed that thought from my mind.

I spotted a stairway. So I ran away from mom to it and jumped on the flat part of the railing. Just as I was about to slide down, I had a weird feeling inside telling me not to do it. So I jumped off the rail and began walking down the steps with my hands in my pockets.

Then I stopped again. I jumped on the rail, and I slid it the rest of the way down. "Whoo-hoo!" I laughed. I turned to see mom just approaching the stairwell, and I waited patiently for her down at the bottom.

For the rest of the day, after dad come home, we worked on emptying out the car. I got all of my things that I brought into my room, and then I helped mom carry in our card table and foldable chairs. I worked on setting up where I was going to sleep for tonight and changed into my pajamas before going downstairs to say goodnight to mom and dad. As I came down the stairs, I heard dad shouting nonsense-to me anyway-into the phone.

"What can we do? We've only got capital to last a month, maybe two." He told the person he was talking to. I saw mom rummaging in a box next to him.

"If we can't find investors by then, we're gonna have to lay people off." Dad continued.

"Mom! Dad! Come kiss me goodnight!" I shouted from my spot on the stairs.

Dad continued to talk into his phone, but I heard mom reply. "Be right there!"

I walked back into my room and covered myself in my sleeping bag, lying my head on my pillow, staring at the ceiling. A light flew across the wall of my room, and I heard rattling coming from outside. Instinctively, I covered everything except my eyes with the sleeping bag.

'Perhaps it was just a bear. Wait a minute… there aren't any bears in San Francisco… that I know of. But there are hairy people that look like bears.' I debated with myself.

I stared at the ceiling until I heard mom open the door. "Hi honey." She sighed.

I suddenly felt sympathetic for mom, she only sighed like that when she was stressed. She came and sat down on the floor next to me before continuing.

"Still no moving van…" She trailed off, rolling her eyes. She scoffed. "Now they're saying it won't be here until Tuesday. Can you believe it?"

Then I noticed dad wasn't behind her like he always was. "Where's dad?"

"On the phone." She answered. She rubbed her eyes underneath her glasses. "This new venture is keeping him pretty busy. Your dad's a little stressed. You know, with getting his new company up and running…"

I scowled. He wouldn't be so stressed if we hadn't moved here in the first place. We could've stayed in Minnesota if he kept his job. I continued to listen to mom.

She sighed. "I guess, all I really want to say is… thank you."

The scowl instantly disappeared from my face when she looked at me, a look of surprise replacing it. "You know, through all this confusion you've stayed… well, you've stayed our happy girl."

She caressed my cheek. "Your dad's under a lot of pressure. But, if you and I can keep smiling, it would be a big help. We can do that for him. Right?"

I thought a moment before answering with a small smile. "Yeah, sure."

Mom smiled at me gratefully. "What did we do to deserve you?" She kissed my forehead before turning off my hockey lamp and walking back to the door. "Sweet dreams."

"Good night." I replied as she closed the door. Then I closed my eyes and fell asleep, hoping tomorrow would be a better day.

* * *

 **I told you all if you were reading my Big Hero 6 fanfictions that I was working on something for Inside Out. Well, I'm here to show you this! *Jazz hands***

 **Now we can see how Riley-and just Riley-thinks as we go through the movie!**

 **Follow and Review! See you in the next chapter!**

 **~Kiki**


	2. Not An Update!

**This is NOT a story update.**

 **So recently I've joined a program that helps smaller YouTubers get more views and subscribers. After watching YouTube WAY too much recently, I've decided to help some of these smaller YouTubers.**

 **So I have 5 YouTubers that you guys should check out. And if you check them out, If you have an account on this website, I'll follow AND favorite you, and your stories. But subscribe to them in order to get my follow and favorite. When you have subscribed to them, PM me telling me that you did and I'll follow and favorite you and your stories!**

 **Here they are:**

 **Candice (ellieisnotonline) channel/UCSSyWBXMyojbUhDcA6s5qtA**

 **Hannah (AntiHan) channel/UCKvM7EmVn9zd_SX2IJhuUmg**

 **Ashlynn (Ashlynn Hughes) channel/UCKYVRwIBhf1JKdidGQ5YFYw**

 **Stephanie (Stephanie Pham) channel/UCKYVRwIBhf1JKdidGQ5YFYw**

 **Nathan (Nathan Macgregor) channel/UCpJ2LZUT0deSYD3SGL2TyFg**

 **Don't forget to Subscribe to them, or I will not follow or favorite you.**

 **If you're waiting for updates on my stories, as I am nearing the end of my Freshman year of high school, I have to study for exams, and over the summer I'm getting a job and doing a lot of volunteering and travel with my family, so please be patient for updates ok?**

 **Thanks for understanding, but don't worry, I WILL update as often as possible this summer. I PROMISE.**

 **Follow and Review! See you in the chapters!**

 **~Kiki**


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